Debates on the efficacy of emerging technologies such as virtual, augmented, mixed, and assisted reality (VR/AR/MR/aR) are prompting companies to innovate their solutions. Doing so has created a resurgence of competition among many tech companies and stimulated ingenuity among immersive solution providers.
Kevin Miller, Chief Technology Officer, Americas, IFS, discussed with XR Today the latest updates and analyses on the Apple Vision Pro, digital twins, and immersive advertising in a fireside chat.
Miller’s comments come months after his firm published its State of Service 2023 report, revealing key pressures companies face to meet service level agreements (SLAs).
According to the report, 46 percent of all respondents were met with challenges in meeting their SLAs. However, emerging technologies were helping firms to become more competitive, surpassing customer experience (CX) differentiators. It added that sustainability also remained a top focus for enterprise operations.
XR Today: What are your general thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro, and how does it compare to Meta’s family of XR products?
Kevin Miller: I think it’s an exciting time for technology because it’s always changing and, in many respects, revisiting certain kinds to determine where we are in their development.
It really comes down to whether the Apple Vision Pro pushes things forward regarding AR. We’ve seen some applications gain real credibility in the marketplace, specifically around employee health and safety, training, augmented assistance, and remote guidance.
I think that Apple adds to that impetus as it typically does across industry metrics, such as increasing adoption rates, but I believe it’s a bit pricey for what they’re trying to achieve.
Conversely, Meta Platforms has created this augmented reality world, which has struggled with adoption rates. However, I look at this technology in terms of how people can use it in the real world.
These are things that I would do in an everyday capacity, and when I look at the different types of workers that IFS supports, this has real potential to help people with aR and AR.
For instance, if I’m in the field and am struggling with a repair, I can pull up information on the AR device remotely to an engineer to walk them through the repair process. The device will allow me to walk them through virtual worlds, pick things apart, highlight and draw, and provide step-by-step instructions. Warehouse workers can also lead and direct robots located in warehouses to select stock and ship items at the facility.
XR Today: Adoption rates for XR technologies are expected to dominate the enterprise sector, analysts say. What are your thoughts on this?
Kevin Miller: Oftentimes, advertisers also help to increase adoption rates. If I’m walking through a virtual world, I’ll start seeing advertisements applicable to the world I’m visiting.
For instance, if I’m interested in a car, I can click on an ad to teleport to the car’s interior to experience the sounds, sights, and everything linked to it. There’s potential for advertisers to help expedite adoption rates by making more engaging advertisements. This is especially true with deeper immersive experiences, rather than virtual test drives.
XR Today: After CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the Connect 2023, how do you believe Meta will counter the Apple Vision Pro?
Kevin Miller: Unfortunately, the technology is so new that there haven’t been a lot of global standards. I can imagine that a world with Meta, coupled with Apple, could potentially be very powerful.
Another story is whether egos will get out of the way to allow that to happen. I think that Zuckerberg needs to come strongly with the Meta Quest 3, because he has to compete with the likes of Apple now.
Zuckerberg has a price competitive edge, and to some extent, the Metaverse is already being built. However, we’ve recently seen many headlines where companies are stalling or reevaluating their position within Meta, including their investments. I think Zuckerberg needs something that will really shift the paradigm in his favour if he wants to remain relevant in the XR space.
XR Today: At the Cannes Lions Festival, two immersive ad partner programmes — Roblox and DoubleVerify — launched, leading to more XR competition. Why is this beneficial to the monetisation of XR?
Kevin Miller: Competition is always good because it propels innovation and can potentially accelerate adoption rates. That’s really what the world needs: more users on a daily basis, where people have to do more things in the Metaverse, rather than in reality.
These ads have the potential to boost adoption because of the experiences that immersive technologies allow. It will be interesting to see which platforms rise to the top in terms of experience.
We have to have compelling reasons to drive people to these technologies, and usually, advertisers are a little ahead of the curve to do this.
Competition is really going to help because it provides a leap-frogging effect of firms wanting to improve and compete for audiences and better content.
XR Today: How will transnational data flows affect AR advertisements?
Kevin Miller: Regarding those that apply to IFS, we may have AR data around field asset maintenance. If advertisements for spare parts appear when browsing digital twins or assets, I need to know the difference in laws and privacy rules between these global regions.
We have to determine where to draw the line on whether adverts are helpful or intrusive. Both advertisers and big tech firms like Apple, Meta, and others are trying to find the right balance between the two polarities.
We should also determine these things so we can engage with audiences rather than scare potential users away.
XR Today: Do you believe there is a resurgence in immersive events, and are they good testbeds for serious gaming technologies?
Kevin Miller: This is actually one of the biggest areas for potential, not just with gaming, but with entertainment in general. We’ve read all the headlines around Tayler Swift’s Eros tour, where thousands of people were turned away at sold-out arenas. Could you imagine if there was an event with Meta or Apple hosting an immersive concert experience? She could have made a billion dollars or more on her tour.
Entertainment can create experiences for those who can’t or don’t want to attend events in person. Many are still cognisant of large groups after the COVID-19 pandemic as well as several security concerns. In some cases, it may offer better experiences than sitting in a stadium’s nosebleed section during a concert.
Again, this really has the potential to help propel adoption rates. I think companies mulling investments and collaboration with Meta have considered how to gain audience interest over the last couple of years.
They want to really make experiences that will attract repeat visits for fashion shows, sporting events, and others. You could have these experiences in the confines of immersive headsets for a much better experience.
I think we’ll continue to see more events like these, even outside of entertainment, continue to grow. The industry should continue experimenting with these events to learn which ones offer the greatest potential for production.
XR Today: Why are digital twins essential to building immersive experiences for enterprise and consumer-focused solutions?
Kevin Miller: This is the one that really has the potential to profoundly change how manufacturing and service industries in the industrial metaverse operate. If I have a high-value field asset, these digital twins allow me to view it virtually and ingest hundreds or thousands of real-time data points on how that asset functions.
Now, I can potentially model temperature rises on sensors, whether the equipment is wet or dry, or if it encounters wind gusts over 80 miles per hour. I have the ability to model these types of things realistically.
We’ve had the capability for some time in terms of computer-aided design (CAD), but not holistically to model entire assets. Now, I can monitor these assets in real time and from sensor points. We can determine when components degrade in performance, offering greater views of preventative maintenance routines.
Maybe a routine that has to run at 12,000 cycles, according to a manufacturer, but really degrades around 10,000 cycles after measurements from digital twin modelling.
This can range from power and energy industries to manufacturing, so I can proactively reduce downtime from catastrophic events, broken spare parts, or other issues.
We can not only learn the systems needed to deploy technicians with the right skill sets to resolve issues, but the system can learn the last three to four times this fault code appeared on that equipment.
They’re ensuring the right folks are working on the right work, at the right time, and with the right equipment and spare parts. It has really the ability to fundamentally change the way that we do that kind of service.
XR Today: What do you think about the rise of companies like Siemens and NVIDIA that are building the technologies for digital twin facilities?
Kevin Miller: Many companies are trying to figure out the best way to support that. We’ve done different surveys and reports, and one showed that nearly half of the respondents reported they struggled as a company to fulfil service level agreements and satisfy contractual commitments. These technologies are helping with that.
Technicians who are highly skilled and have 20-30 years of experience will know these systems inside and out. They may become tired of travelling and doing field service on a daily basis.
Instead, they could sit with a virtual headset, in the comfort of their home, and virtually walk through how to repair equipment with technicians working remotely. I think it has great potential in the industrial metaphor and will help increase the skill sets of the workers we’re trying to train and onboard.
